CHEMISTRY. 211 



useful. Schapringer recommends sulphate of aniline, but Behrend 

 states that ordinary nitric acid is a more delicate and certain re- 

 agent. Paper containing wood is rapidly colored brown by this 

 acid, especially when the paper is warmed. 



Effect of Freezing on Beer. The experiments of C. Lermer 

 show that freezing it so far as to obtain a crust of ice on the sur- 

 face is a ready way of convening small beer into strong ale. He 

 bored holes through the crust of ice, and withdrew the fluid 

 below, which exhibited the following composition, as compared 

 with the beer before freezing : 



Before freezing. After freezing. 



Specific gravity 1.0243 . . 1.0489 



Extractive matter, per cent. . . . 5.68 . . 15.21 



Alcohol, per cent. .... 3.5 . . 9.43 



The extractive matter when burned gave 3.27 per cent, of ash, 

 which was almost entirely composed of phosphoric acid and 

 potash. 



Easy Mode of producing Aniline. A simple process for the re- 

 duction of nitro-benzole to aniline is given by Kekule, namely, by 

 adding an acid solution of chloride of tin to nitro-benzole ; a 

 strong reaction ensues in a few moments, great heat is developed, 

 and aniline is produced. In applying this process on the large 

 scale, some precautions are necessary to Aioderate the violence of 

 the action. 



NEW METALLURGIC PROCESS. 



At a recent meeting of the Massachusetts Institute of Technol- 

 og} T , Dr. James D. Whelpley read a paper on the chemical process 

 for obtaining red oxide of copper from the ores at Harvey Hill, 

 Canada East, where the first trial was made, on a large scale, of 

 a new nietallurgic process, which promises to effect a complete 

 revolution in the working of metallic ores, especially the sulphides. 



The furnace at Harvey Hill was 20 feet high, formed with- 

 in and without like a shot tower. Under this tower, through 

 which the burning fuel and ores descended, was a bath of water 

 chemically prepared. The tower formed an enormous blowpipe, 

 having a flame 30 feet long made by\he rapid oxidation of excess- 

 ively fine particles of fuel and ore, which plunged at a red or 

 white heat into the chemical bath. The principal copper ore at 

 Harvey Hill consists of a blue sulphide of copper, in which the 

 proportion of sulphur is 16 for every 32 pounds of the metal ; one- 

 third by weight is sulphur, the rest metallic copper, the chemical 

 equivalents of a protosulphide. In the old method of concentra- 

 tion from one-fifth to one-fourth of all the copper was lost. The 

 new process stops at the production of red oxide of copper ; the 

 red and black oxides are subsequently reduced to metal and re- 

 fined by a well-known process. The black oxide generated by 

 combustion is dissolved in the brine bath of common salt and 

 water, to which chloride of calcium is added, and precipitated 

 therefrom as red oxide. 



The process has four divisions, more or less novel, as follows : 



